


New Kid in Town

by TheQueen



Series: Fics I Wrote in A Dream [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst with a Happy Ending, Drabble, End Game OT3, Hurt/Comfort, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-16
Updated: 2018-06-16
Packaged: 2019-05-24 07:41:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14950458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheQueen/pseuds/TheQueen
Summary: Hunk and Keith thought they'd be friends forever. Then Lance moves into town.





	New Kid in Town

Hunk and Keith were childhood friends who met when they Keith moved in next door to Hunk with his true forever home.

Keith had been a cynical nine year old. Hunk had been sunshine personified. No one thought they'd be friends. When they met because Keith and Shiro had been playing in the backyard and Keith managed to kick the soccer ball over the fence into Hunk’s backyard, knocking poor Hunk right on the head, everyone had expected tears. Instead Hunk had picked up the ball and happily chucked it right back, hitting Keith square in the face.

From that moment on they were inseparable. Hunk and Keith. Keith and Hunk. From the third grade to the tenth they lived in each other's pockets, practically spent every moment they could together.

And then one day, Lance moves into town.

Lance... the most beautiful boy Keith and Hunk had ever met. Beautiful clear skin while the rest of them were dying from puberty aches. Striking blue eyes. The kindest smile. The most amazing laugh.

Keith meets him first. He's student president. As part of his duties, he is required to show new students around. The moment he sees Lance, he's in love. It’s a shocking, jaw dropping, pit fall of an emotion that leaves his stomach rolling. When Lance says hello, Keith stammers something vaguely sensible and waits for the floor to open and swallow him whole. When Lance tries to make conversation, he keeps his mouth shut in hopes of starving off more embarrassment despite his need to somehow impress the prettiest boy he’s ever seen.

Not the best of introductions.

Hunk meets him next. In the hallway by accident when Lance is waiting for Keith to lead him to his next class, Hunk offers his assistance just as Keith turns the corner. And by the time Keith reaches them, they're already getting along like a house on fire.

Hunk is easy to talk to even if his cheeks are too red and he can't quite meet Lance's eye. The minute Keith arrives Lance realizes they're best of friends. He sees Keith relax and he jokes that it's nice to see Keith smile.

Keith blushes rocket red and mumbles, "It's hard to talk to someone so pretty."

It's Lance's turn to blush. "You're not too bad looking yourself."

Hunk watches with a wavering smile, doing his best not to run away. He should have known Lance would be attracted to someone like Keith. Handsome. Athletic. A few pimples here and there but nothing awful for someone their age. Talented. A gifted student.

Compared to Hunk--fat, average looking, good skin, but not that talented outside of robotics. A nerd--Keith is the obvious choice, right?

But the thing is Lance and Keith tend to butt heads as often as they get along. Half their interactions are either aggressive flirting or aggressive competing. If there was a moment where they were just talking and joking around, it was usually a moment mediated by Hunk's very presence.

One day Keith turns to Hunk and admits "Sometimes I don't know if I want to kiss him to kiss him or kiss him to shut him up. There is no inbetween."

Hunk and Lance however fall into a sort of easy companionship that Hunk hasn't had since the day he met Keith. It's not uncommon to see them together, Lance half-sitting in Hunk's lap, reading or talking softly or watching a movie.

And with every moment Hunk spends with Lance the more Hunk falls in love with him. First with his wit and his imagination. Then with Lance's love for nature, for the water, for his family.

But that isn't to say Keith hasn't falling in love with Lance as well.  Or that they weren't good for each other. Where with Hunk Lance settled, felt content and slowed down, comfortable in his own skin, with Keith Lance sped up. Lance got competitive, got ambitious. Felt the need to achieve and be better. A better student. A better athlete. A better brother, uncle, son. A better person. Keith inspired him. And in turn, Lance inspired Keith.

Lance inspired Keith to better his relationships with people, to get more active in the community. Volunteer more. Work harder in school. Try new things. Visit new places! Eat new foods. Keith had never realized his city had a botanical garden until Lance took him there. Keith hadn't realized he’d become so distant from his brother until Lance pointed it out.

Two perfectly healthy, loving relationships. With two perfectly different people. Both falling desperately in love with the same person.

Keith gets jealous. An irrational, unavoidable jealous that left his hands shaking as he paced up and down his room. Hunk and Lance had gone to the beach. Without him. They were allowed to do that. They were friends. And if he repeated it enough times, surely it would stick.

The next day when he meets with them for lunch, his mood is dower as he kee[s beating himself up for his stupid, cruel emotions. Yes he and Lance flirt a lot, but that doesn’t change the fact they have a hard time getting through a conversation without it becoming an argument. Certainly Hunk is better for Lance? Hunk isn’t so quick to lose his temper, isn’t as hot headed. Lance deserves someone like Hunk. Gentle. Kind. Sunshine personified.

This whole time Hunk is only been growing more and more jealous as time goes on, as Keith and Lance keep flirting.

Then one day Lance and Keith go missing.

They'd gone hiking. The forests around their town breathtaking in the late spring. They'd asked Hunk to come but Hunk had declined. Hiking wasn't his thing and he'd agreed to help his Mom and Mama with the errands around the house.

And then night came. And they don't come home. And then the next morning comes and goes. The clouds break. Rain came pouring down for two days straight. Search parties were sent out but sparingly. The fear of mudslides making search parties too dangerous.

The rain gives. Search parties are sent. The atmosphere at school is somber at best, depressing at worst. Hunk has a hard time going. His only thoughts those of guilt and regret.  _Have I been a good friend to them? Did I make their last days fun? Happy? Memorable? Why did I let my jealousy get the best of me? Why did I let such negative thoughts have room to breath? This is my fault? I know it is. I did this somehow. It's my fault._

_It's my fault they're gone._

Three days later, Keith and Lance are found limping their way out of the forest, two towns over. Keith has a concussion and a bruised rib. Lance has a fractured leg. Both of them have cuts, bruises, and mud.

They're found by a couple who were taking a morning stroll, half passed out on the trail. They were rushed to the hospital where they spend two days in hospital before they're allowed to go home. Where they spend a week recovering before they can come back to school.

Apparently, they'd challenged each other to a race up a more challenging rock cliff--their hike being less of a hike and more of a climb--where they'd both slipped and fallen. Hitting the ground hard. Only to wake up as the rain came down and crawl their way to the closest shelter: a series of caverns nearby. There they had spent two days camping out, drinking what they could from the falling rain and stealing out to find edible berries when the rain was lighter. Cuddling for warmth. The wood too wet to start a fire most times.

When the rain let up, they made their way to the nearest town. But pain and hunger and thirst and sleep deprivation left them disoriented. They'd gone too far off the path and chosen to follow a river back to town. It took them two days to find a clearly marked hiking trail. One more to get to civilization.

It's safe to say they're inseparable after that. Keith and Lance. Lance and Keith. Back to back. Time away from each other leaves them near panic. It's not strange to find them holding hands or leaning close to each other. Gravitating to each other thanks to mutual trauma and a need to keep the other safe.

Hunk stays close. But it's clear from his perspective the space they'd once left for him is gone now. And he can't fault them. Won't let his jealousy mar his pure relief. They're alive. They're safe. He can see them. Can reach out and touch if he had the bravery. Always just a few feet away to take care of them if they need him, even if they don't realize they need him.

They start dating a month later. No one is surprised. They announce it by Lance kissing Keith just as they're splitting for class.

Hunk congrats Keith. Keith blushes, smiles, ducks his head. "I don't think I've ever felt this way before," Keith admits, "I think I want to spend the rest of my life with him."

Hunk smiles.

Because in the time he has spent watching over them, Hunk has come to a startling and yet not so surprising realization that he doesn't just love Lance--beautiful, magical, wonderful Lance--but also Keith: his rock, his companion, his greatest friend.

And he has lost them both.

And he's too happy for them to let himself mourn just yet.

(No. He'll do that later. That night in the privacy of his room. Let himself be selfish enough to bow his head and cry, to clutch his pillow and wonder why he couldn't have been enough, couldn't have been more.)

Lance and Keith are knowing as the power couple, the ideal couple. They're cute and gross and lovey dovey. And Hunk supports them through all of it. And if his heart breaks a little more every day then that's fine. They're alive. They're safe.

When it comes time to graduate, Lance and Keith leave for  Boston. Keith is attending MIT for astrophysics. Lance is attending TUFTs for premed.

Hunk goes to Berkley in California for Electrical Engineering.

They fall out of touch over time.

Hunk moves on. His heart heals. It has to. He falls in love with a woman named Shay. And when they fall apart, he finds it's easy to move on, to let go. His heart has broken once. The first cut is always the deepest. He has a string of romances after that. Falls in and out of love. He achieves. Creates a startup that sells for $467.9 million through IPOs.

Lance and Keith stay together. Lance finishes his PhD in bioethics from Harvard and starts working for his alma mater. Keith starts working for NASA as a physicist.

They're all in their 30s at this point.

They return to their home state for a high school reunion. Lance and Keith have adopted a small girl. Hunk has a new boyfriend. He isn't sure it's going to last long.

Keith is the first one to make a move. It's the first time in five years they've seen each other and he doesn't want to waste a second longer. He misses Hunk. They'd grown up together, been inseparable for so long. He never really understood why they drifted apart to begin with. He wants Hunk to meet his daughter, to be apart of his life again.

Hunk is terrified when he sees Keith make a beeline towards him across the gymnasium. Lance and a small child hot on his heel. Because Hunk knows why they drifted apart. Hunk was protecting his heart, is still protecting his heart. The knowledge that they were so happy without him driving him to tears. It had been preemptive. Like cauterizing a wound instead of waiting for it to scab over.

But when Keith throws himself at Hunk for a hug, Hunk still opens his arms like they're 15 again and excited to see each other after a weekend apart.

"I've missed you," Keith mumbles as Hunk stumbles back to catch his balance, nearly lifting Keith off the floor.

"We've both missed you," Lance clarifies. "What happened to you Hunk?"

And this isn't a conversation they can have here, surrounded by far too nosey classmates. His boyfriend half forgotten in the background.

"Come over for dinner," Lance adds, picking his daughter up. "Let's catch up. Come meet Nadia. Bring..." Lance gestures slightly with his head to the man standing next to Hunk, "Your boyfriend if you want. Just... let's fix this, Hunk."

His boyfriend, shocking no one, decides not to come along. He's not really into whatever's going on and he doesn't really care. Their relationship has been over for a while. Lance and Keith's place is a nice hotel room downtown near one of the busier restaurant streets. They go to dinner at a local italian restaurant. Shockingly the conversation is easy. Once they get past the awkward "how've you been?" it's easy to remember why they were friends were so long.

Hunk adores Nadia, the small muslim girl Lance and Keith had adopted at the age of 8. He already knows if given the chance he'll spoil her rotten.

When Keith finishes tucking her in--apparently Keith read the night time stories better than Lance--they head down to the hotel bar and order a round of drinks. Only Keith is brave enough to breach the topic, "What happened?"

Hunk laughs nervous, wondering what he's going to say when Lance adds, "We just... we just want the truth Hunk."

It's only then that Hunk is reminded, bitterly, how hard it is to say no to Lance.

So for the first time in ten years, Hunk is completely honest. He tells them everything. His love and his jealousy. His self-hatred. He tells them he misses them and he wants them and that he knows he's selfish. The whole time Lance and Keith listen patiently, holding hands under the table.

When Hunk is done talking, Lance silently passes him a tissue as Keith moves closer to lean against Hunk in a makeshift sort of hug.

"I'm glad you told us," Keith says.

"I wish you told us earlier," Lance admits.

Because while Hunk had convinced himself completely that there was no place for him in Lance and Keith's life, Lance and Keith had slowly been realizing they'd needed him.

After their accident in the forest, Lance and Keith had been a mess, an overprotective, co-dependant mess. Too terrified to learn how to have a healthy relationship until they were on their own, miles away from any friends and family.

It took a lot of trial and error to remember how to be two people again. And in that time it was Hunk who helped them through it. Phone calls Hunk had seen as unimportant. Late night visits when they saw each other over breaks that Hunk hadn't given much thought. Text conversations. Skype chats. Hunk had helped them through it, taught them how to be good for each other again.

But it would only be after they were sure they'd lost them that they realized they didn't just need him. They wanted him.

Unfortunately, Hunk had done such a thorough job of cutting them from his life that there was little they could do to win him over, to woo him. They were sure they were too late, that whatever chance they'd had for something more in high school and in college was gone. Surely Hunk had moved on. Surely Hunk had decided he did not want them.

So when Keith saw Hunk again across the gymnasium, Keith had only approached him with the hope of rekindling what remained of their friendship.

The last thing they'd expected to hear was Hunk still carried a torch for them.

"So where do we go from here?" Keith asks when they've finished saying their piece. "What do we do now?"

Hunk shrugs, takes a deep breath and makes a decision. "I guess we try, right?"

It's hard not to feel they've wasted time. As Hunk moves out east to be with them--his job letting him work from home--they have to wonder are they too old to make this work? 34 is an old age to start all over again.

Nadia is ecstatic. She adores her Uncle Hunk (Uncle because Hunk has no desire to take their place as one of her father's, content with being the fun loving uncle) and sees nothing weird when Uncle Hunk starts sleeping in her daddy's' room. The perks of being a 9 year old.

It takes work for them to find a rhythm, a groove. In the beginning, most days they get it wrong than right. Hunk too timid. Lance and Keith too used to a routine they'd spent a decade carving out. Some days, even months later, Hunk has his moments of doubt: should he be here? was he intruding?

But it gets better. Because they work at it. Because they make a conscious and continuous effort to love each other and love each other equally.

And a few years later--as they send their daughter off to university--older and wiser and very, very happy, they realize in many ways they wouldn't have had it any other way.

 

**THE END**

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Another installment in my series of "outlines I turned into short stories." This was honestly one of the first VLD fics I planned out that I just never got around to. I honestly still love this idea and might come back to it one day. I just love stories about people messing up and then getting a chance to make it right. 
> 
> Please let me know what you thought!
> 
> PS: If you want to read about Lance and Keith's time lost in the cave please check out this link:  
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/14079519/chapters/32534010


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